Old news but still good news!

7 is the loneliest number...
Wow. A whole MESS of new miscellaneous art showed up today. And it sure is miscellaneous... take a look. (Louis Wu 11:13:11 UTC) (permalink)

Beautiful musings
A short writeup about the Halo trailer (due on Wednesday) has been posted to our forum, by mnemesis. No footage, unfortunately... but a glowing review and a promise of more (over at b.net) soon. (Louis Wu 10:26:30 UTC) (permalink)

Alex is gone...
Back in July, we mentioned that Alex Seropian was leaving Bungie. Yesterday, this came to pass. Good luck, Alex - and thanks for all the great games. (Louis Wu 10:15:59 UTC) (permalink)

Start-of-weekend reading
Life's been busy - this is Fan Fiction from the last couple of days:

Halo National Championship pre-pictures
Pictures - not of the HNC itself, but of the reception on Thursday night. Check out the setup! (The actual finals were played with 2 players per console on 36" plasma screens.) We bring you what we can... (Louis Wu 01:19:53 UTC) (permalink)

So who won?
A HNC pseudo-update from Matt Soell - no real details... but the Bungie Dream Team is aiming for a win. Check it out at Bungie.net. (Louis Wu 01:08:22 UTC) (permalink)

Get him! He's a traitor!
Mnemesis, our stalwart (or so we thought) Story Page maintainer, is currently schmoozing with the upper crust, and watching the Halo National Championships... and plans to report back... to Bungie.net! Yep, that's right, he's been conscripted as a B.net roving reporter, and plans to post his observations there. Ahh... what the heck, they're nice guys, too. Keep an eye on Bungie.net for all the details. (Louis Wu 19:44:23 UTC) (permalink)

Oooo...
A harbinger of things to come? Check out this sneak preview of a Halo 2 site. You didn't hear it from us. (Louis Wu 18:00:51 UTC) (permalink)

HNC Finals Commence!
Our spies are everywhere. Here's a snapshot of the postgame carnage report from a 16-player CTF game at the reception for the Halo National Championships, held last night at the DoubleTree in Westwood, CA. From our trenchcoat-wearing guy in the field:

It's the postgame carnage screen shot from a 16 player CTF on Blood Gulch. The game approx 30-40 min. with the players mostly running around playing slayer. Not alot of team play was evident, which figures since none of the 16 guys playing knew or played with each other before the NC. All the players are good, but not as good as those two Canadians from the E3 fan fest.

'Those two Canadians' would be Finn and Shovelface, of Team 7hr33. (Louis Wu 17:30:22 UTC) (permalink)

Have Shotgun, Will Travel
Stuck on the Library on Legendary? Yes, you could check our our very own Legendary walkthrough, right here at HBO... but it doesn't come with the nifty-keen pictures you can get along with Bungie's version. Check it out! (Louis Wu 00:27:59 UTC) (permalink)

Master Chief - tomorrow?
Heh - this story has been floating around for a while, but the comic-book-ripoff angle is new for me, and pretty amusing. The US Army solicited proposals for a nanotech suit for the soldier of the future. (The concept art looks vaguely familiar...) If you want to read some background on the project, see this article at the New Scientist. MIT won the grant ($50 million)... but now have a little bit of trouble explaining how a comic book hero ended up in their design proposal. Thanks to Bowser for the heads-up! (Louis Wu 17:28:09 UTC) (permalink)

It is our destiny.
Another quick trailer for you - Halo: Reloaded. 7 megs, 1:21, QT5 format. The audio has a couple of glitches, but nothing serious. If you like it, let Black_Jackal know, on our forum! (Louis Wu 09:29:21 UTC) (permalink)

Aiming in PC Halo
There's a short article in the October issue of PC Gamer about PC Halo - and while much of what's in it is either common sense or speculation, there is an interesting discussion about aiming.

The Xbox version of Halo has been honored for the way it controls (after some practice), but obviously it can't achieve the fidelity of the mouse-keyboard format. To help, Xbox Halo has six different subtle targeting aids that allowed the levels to be designed with vertical options such as targeting an enemy high in a tower through a sniper scope. (Other console FPS titles have had to "flatten" the environments to make them gamepad-friendly.) On the PC, looking around with the mouse-keyboard combo is as instinctive as it is intuitive, and so most of these aids will be removed. "When we do this, it also impacts the balance of the game [e.g. head shots], and we have to compensate for these effects in the damage model," says Chu.

(Chu is Hamilton Chu, Halo's producer.) Can you tell this was written by a PC gamer? Bias aside, the removal of aiming aids should be welcomed by the hardcore who feel like their control has been taken away from them. We'll bring you a scan of this article as soon as the issue is off the shelves. (Louis Wu 08:52:12 UTC) (permalink)

Guess my weight!
Heh - gotta love it when they write the news for you. :)

The Psyjnir Complex is giving away three Halo Soundtracks to the people who can predict the winner of the Halo National Tournament Finals.

Go to the Psyjnir 7th Column Chapter to enter.

Finalist Spotlight
Wondering about the 16 folks who made the finals of the Halo National Tournament? Bungie has put up a story about them at the Tru7h and Reconciliation site. Give it a look! (The finals this weekend will be broadcast later on G4tv - if anyone knows when, please be sure to let us know! It's not a channel offered here, but maybe we can get the word out to someone who does get it...) (Louis Wu 21:39:56 UTC) (permalink)

European Xbox Price Drop
Seems the Xbox has dropped in price AGAIN in Europe - this time to €250/£160. Timing of the announcement was within an hour of Sony's announcement that the PS2 would drop, as well (to the same price point). A decent time to pick up a console in Europe! (Thanks to Manitou for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 21:29:40 UTC) (permalink)

If 'The Beginning of the End' seems unfamiliar, part 1 (which has since been renamed) was originally posted as 'Untitled', by ruppel. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 21:22:25 UTC) (permalink)

Changeable cutscenes?
Warbow has put together a table showing which cutscenes in Halo are alterable by the player, and which are not. If you have information that supplements (or contradicts) this, join in the thread! (Louis Wu 19:49:15 UTC) (permalink)

Absurd number of reviews...
Whew! Another 31 reviews added to our Reviews database - total is up to 177, and the average rating is 94.6%. There are no print magazine review scores included - just online sources. We received a recent submission which doesn't really qualify as a 'review', since it's not from a gaming website - but there's a lot of information, so you can check out Barry the SuperScot's Halo review. For the reviews from known gaming sites, check our Reviews database. (Time to get a search box in there, methinks...) (Louis Wu 19:45:29 UTC) (permalink)

What - another one?
Guh. On the heels of yesterday's announcement of the Forerunner's network opening, we've received mail from Jack Smith that he's trying to build a 'coming soon bungie fan network' - and needs maintainers for the following subsections: Oni, Myth, Marathon, PiD, Minotaur, and Abuse. (He's got Halo covered, it seems.) This is an all-volunteer effort, of course - no pay - but applicants should contact him at Clearoffjack@aol.com. Is this the newest trend? (Louis Wu 13:50:33 UTC) (permalink)

Reviews db grows
Thanks to Harry Al-Shakarchi, who pointed out another cache of Halo reviews. We've added 10 more to our Reviews database, and will continue to add more over the next few days. (Louis Wu 13:58:41 UTC) (permalink)

Forerunners opens
Not really Halo news, since their Halo portal is rather empty... but Forerunners.org is finally open for business. The Marathon section is the most filled-out... but there's also a Myth section and a (coming soon) Oni section. They're a free webhosting service for sites related to Bungie games, and they're being run by old-time community members. (There are also a surprising number of b.org staffers involved - news to me, for the most part.) It's wonderful to see sites like spnkrghol up and running again! (Louis Wu 09:30:48 UTC) (permalink)

Logo submission
A new logo by Nolan - we've added it to the Logos section. (Louis Wu 20:52:17 UTC) (permalink)

Halo as a market beacon?
Game Studies has posted an intriguing article on Halo, and its place in the gaming world. Not a review so much as a look at what Halo brings to gaming, it studies how Halo tops its competitors, and what makes it special. Definitely worth a read. Thanks to Bowser for the heads-up on this one. (It also mentioned a site called 'MetaCritic', which led to 7 new Halo reviews for our Reviews database.) (Louis Wu 20:30:38 UTC) (permalink)

Peter Tamte on Mac Halo
Inside Mac Games posted an interview with Destineer's Peter Tamte today, in which Tamte discusses Halo for Mac. Here's a small quote:

Mike Phillips: After Halo's announcement, the Mac gaming community let out a collective "w00t!" of joy. Can you give us a progress update on Halo and will it be a simultaneous Mac/PC release?

Peter Tamte: Everyone who is involved in the project is committed to a simultaneous Windows/Mac release for Halo. The progress on Halo is meeting all the internal schedules so far.

For the rest of the interview (concerning Halo and Destineer's other projects) head over to IMG. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 17:37:04 UTC) (permalink)

EP drools over Halo 2
Electric Playground got to see the Halo 2 trailer at a Microsoft event in Toronto last week. They wrote up their impressions - as well as some questions they asked at the time (and the answers, or non-answers, they received). Not a whole lot new... but worth a read. Thanks to the Junkyard for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:03:08 UTC) (permalink)

That's just MEAN, man!
Warbow Home Video presents... Payback. Starring MC as Porter, Cortana as Val Resnick, and Little Grunt as Pearl. You can download the trailer from Mythica.org - it's 7.4 mb, 1:17 long, and in QT5 format. We can't wait to see the released film! (Louis Wu 12:48:14 UTC) (permalink)

I want one of those!
dogsounds does it again... another great comic starring your favorite UNSC death dealer. The model was done by Strykerwolf - you can find more of his work in the Miscellaneous section. This picture, though, is in the Miscellaneous art section. (Louis Wu 12:26:02 UTC) (permalink)

Old Pictures, Made New
DOH! A couple of days ago, Deimos™, of Subnova, mentioned a new desktop image he'd created - but we forgot to post it. It's now been added to our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 19:51:32 UTC) (permalink)

Halo reviews
A pair of new Halo reviews for you: PC Games Portal thought it was nothing special (it's in German, before you go screaming over there), and GameNerve loved it. (Yes, we told them we're not the official site. It's possible they don't read their mail.) We've added both reviews to our Reviews database. (Louis Wu 19:00:56 UTC) (permalink)

Sunday Fanfic
Much of this Fan Fiction came in yesterday... but yesterday was busy.

Holy sneakmeisters, Batman!
Got a Tricks jones goin' on? Frogblast is here to help. Tons of updating on utfoo... one of these days, these'll even migrate over here! (Louis Wu 16:43:03 UTC) (permalink)

More money, less hassle
Interested in the Halo50k competition, but not up for a $400 entry fee for your team? Check the website - looks like they might have a corporate sponsor lined up. What does this mean to you? It means (if it works out) a guaranteed $50k pot (instead of one based on the number of participants), and no entrance fee. (It also means the competition has been pushed back - from November, to February.) Read all the details at Halo50k.com. Correction: My mistake - they didn't mean no entrance fee, they meant a reduced entrance fee (amount doesn't seem to be determined yet). Apologies for the confusion. (Louis Wu 01:27:19 UTC) (permalink)

BGH Stirs
Battleground: Halo, a long-running (but recently languishing) Halo site, has gotten a makeover, and some new content. There are glitches (all the tricks pages yield 404's at the moment) - but it's nice to see the site being updated again! Update: The Tricks section now works. They're fast over there! (Louis Wu 10:31:33 UTC) (permalink)

Matt's Bungieversary!
Seven Years, Seven Months, Seven Days... (Posted by Matt Soell at Bungie.net, but Marty O'Donnell chose 7:27 pm to post it to our forum. Age brings wisdom...) (Louis Wu 01:44:07 UTC) (permalink)

Duke Spartan Forever
dogsounds has reworked the cartoon submitted recently with a pair of new quotes - thanks to Cheerio and HuntrKillr for the text! (You can probably stop sending us captions now. Thanks!) (Louis Wu 01:19:31 UTC) (permalink)

Better than Stickboy
Want to be a game designer? Jaime Griesemer, Lead Designer for Halo 2, has written up a snazzy little guide on how to break into the industry. Check it out at Bungie.net. (Louis Wu 01:08:06 UTC) (permalink)

Wallpaper passes 400
Three new desktop images for you, all using Halo 2 artwork. Check 'em out in our Wallpaper section... (Louis Wu 18:12:03 UTC) (permalink)

Caption contest!
dogsounds has whipped up another one of his cool comics - but he's not thrilled with the caption. If you can come up with a better one, drop us a line. (You'll find the piece in our Miscellaneous Art section.) (Louis Wu 02:11:00 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Soundtrack Review
Monsters at Play has reviewed the Halo soundtrack - and it's a great read. No "looping cheese-rock riffs" here... the soundtrack is one solid piece of work, and the review does it justice. Check it out! (Louis Wu 02:01:51 UTC) (permalink)

Forgotten stuff...
Eep - Soulstalker reminded us that he'd submitted a Halo 2 box rendition a month ago, but we'd overlooked it. It's been added to the Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 14:04:26 UTC) (permalink)

An old guard site comes back
hEx writes to let us know that Halo Network, a large German Halo fansite, is back updating. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 12:14:00 UTC) (permalink)

Page Toppers for Halo 2 sites...
Another Halo Banner by Random Hero - check our Banners section. (Louis Wu 12:07:07 UTC) (permalink)

A project, for the time-rich...
An interesting little discussion on our forum has led to the conclusion that the time it takes for a weapon to respawn in multiplayer is fixed - for a given weapon, on a given map. Skeletor compiled a listing for Blood Gulch - but doing this on each map is relatively tedious, so he stopped there. Anyone bored enough to compile this list for other maps? First submission for each map will get credit on this page. (Louis Wu 10:36:26 UTC) (permalink)

Wanna work for Bungie?
Interesting. If you visit the Jobs page at Bungie, you'll find 5 listings at the moment:

However, Michael Hughes just pointed out that there's a different one listed at Gamasutra: Studio Manager. Have they just not gotten around to posting it on their jobs page? Or have they decided that Gamasutra might be a better audience than their jobs page? The listing's been up since August 2, almost a week before the announcement of Halo 2. (Louis Wu 19:22:51 UTC) (permalink)

Better go read 'em - there'll be more tomorrow, I'm sure... (Louis Wu 15:24:51 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 banner submission
Jack Smith has whipped up a new banner for Halo 2 - you'll find it in our Banners section. (Louis Wu 14:41:42 UTC) (permalink)

The Warthog, HBO Edition
Whoa - does this mean we have to start selling clothing? (Louis Wu 13:23:58 UTC) (permalink)

HNC Regional Winners Posted
The winners (and alternates) of the Regionals in the Halo National Tournament have been posted at Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site - check 'em out! Congrats to everyone who got this far... and good luck next week in LA! (Louis Wu 21:08:11 UTC) (permalink)

Poll Smash
Instant poll over at Gamespot - 'Which upcoming console first-person shooter are you most excited about?' Currently, Halo 2 holds the lead, with 40% of the more than 11,000 votes cast. Closest competitor? Doom 3, at 22%. Go vote! (Thanks to Trotskij for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 19:30:22 UTC) (permalink)

Announcing...
Woohoo! It took FOREVER, but the Miscellaneous section is FINALLY ONLINE! Browse through it, and find all the fun stuff we've collected over the past three years that doesn't fit anywhere else. There are some tasty morsels in there... (Before anyone asks, there's no fan-created music, because in the not-too-distant future, there'll be a Fan Music page.) Thanks to Phil Saulnier for doing some of the original sorting, and to vector40 for many of the descriptions and lots of testing. Whew! (Louis Wu 16:25:35 UTC) (permalink)

Wort Wort Wort?
Elite 'taunts'? Skeletor mentioned that Marty O'Donnell had commented on some elite 'taunts' back in May, at the E3 fanfest... but had suggested that hearing them in-game would be pretty hard (too many variables to line up). Surreptitious recorded some stuff that he believes are some of those taunts - is this what Marty meant? Or is there more to find? (Louis Wu 15:13:32 UTC) (permalink)

...You will know what real pain is.
Whoa. Stephen Hawking has made an ad for Xbox Live! (Okay, okay, not really - but dang, Blackstar did a fine job of it anyway.) 10 megs, 1 minute, QT 5 format; we're not hosting it, but that's because Blackstar said we didn't need to. We would, though - it's really funny. And we will - if downloads get out of hand at Blackstar Productions. Check it out! (Louis Wu 13:00:03 UTC) (permalink)

Nice lighting...
Shaun Alphonso has put together a vision of the Halo 2 box. You'll find it in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 10:20:13 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 Fan Banner
Random Hero has submitted a Halo 2 Banner - we've added it to our Banners collection. (Lost in the mail for a day or so...) (Louis Wu 10:10:56 UTC) (permalink)

Don't forget, series can be read in a single shot by following the 'Read This Series' link directly following any of the chapter entries. Update: Soon after posting this, Wado submitted part two of his Shadows of Archon II story. Fast and furious... Update 2: Ack! Another one! Jamie just dropped off Short Story, part 7. This is the last fanfic update for the day - anything that comes in now will be posted tomorrow. (Louis Wu 09:49:35 UTC) (permalink)

Now you see it...
Hmm... interesting. BOLL noticed that the Halo 2 trailer countdown at xbox.com is gone. Glitch in their database system, or something more nefarious? (Louis Wu 08:46:10 UTC) (permalink)

DOH!
Big-time correction - the PC Gamer article next month will be on Halo PC, not Halo 2. (Nijhazer's curiosity on why a PC gaming mag would be covering an Xbox-only title is well-founded.) Thanks to Harry Al-Shakarchi for pointing out that I should read my email more closely... (Louis Wu 19:23:46 UTC) (permalink)

Second floor: Pottery, TVs, Hippos...
Hippo news at b.net. I suppose if you're gonna have a fetish... (Louis Wu 19:02:19 UTC) (permalink)

Relief for the non-broadband crowd
Two new versions of the 'Causing a Ruckus' video for you, if the original was too big; a 21 mb .mov, and a 4 mb .wmv. Both suffer in quality compared to the original (though the .mov is pretty good) - but for those who can't handle the big 'un... give 'em a try. Links can be found on the CAR mirrors page (and we're happy to add any new mirrors you tell us about). (Louis Wu 16:09:03 UTC) (permalink)

Jamie points out that he's still looking for suggestions for a title for his story. (This, I thought, was the sort of thing the comments section was built for... but maybe I'm confused.) (Louis Wu 04:45:11 UTC) (permalink)

Dead Tree Bonanza
Next month should be a rockin' one for Halo 2 information - we received word that the October issues of both PC Gamer here in the US, and Edge Magazine in the UK will have large Halo 2 pieces. (Here's Edge's teaser, courtesy of Griffon.) Thanks to Harry Al-Shakarchi and Griffon, respectively, for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 02:40:43 UTC) (permalink)

Temporary CAR Mirror
Thanks to vector40, and to Narcogen, of Rampancy.net - there's a short-term mirror for the Causing a Ruckus movie up over there. It's up until something big comes along - but it should alleviate some of the strain on existing servers right now. (It's been added, temporarily, to the CAR mirrors page.) (Louis Wu 02:35:41 UTC) (permalink)

Guess who's back...
We've gotten mail from movie makers, griping that our Movie Hosting Guidelines are too stringent... that there's no way to make a good film anymore which meets them. Team Overkill is here to say that's just wrong. They've submitted a 'stunts' film - basically, just gameplay stuff put to music - that easily meets our criteria... the only problem I have is that I don't have the time to reduce the filesize and still do justice to the image quality (so the sub-3-minute film weighs in at a hefty 43 megs). If you've got bandwidth to spare, we'd love to hear from you - this puppy needs homes. In the meantime, you can go grab Causin' a Ruckus on our mainstay bandwidth providers, Mythica.org and Psyjnir Hotline. (Louis Wu 17:07:41 UTC) (permalink)

Rotation time...
Quick update before hittin' the sack... couple'a desktops for you. One from Xcruiser (4 flavors), one from Justin. Find 'em in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 03:41:17 UTC) (permalink)

For want of a lap...
Thanks to 909, who wrote up his HNC Regionals experience on our forum. Congrats on the great playing, 909, and sorry you missed that last lap! Eep - and before I actually got this posted, Matt Soell wrote up a mini-description of the Semifinals over in Bungie-land... no word, though, on the alleged playing of the Halo 2 Trailer there. Still waiting on that... Update: Whoa - it was true! Matt himself brought the trailer to the Renton games... Cino wasn't making anything up! (Louis Wu 23:39:56 UTC) (permalink)

Fonkee...
Word comes of a french Warthog Jumpin' movie. The jumping is nothing special... but the dancing chiefs are pretty cool. :) If you're willing to watch it in Real format, go here and check it out! (Louis Wu 14:51:02 UTC) (permalink)

Gamitopia says 'Eh.'
Gamitopia reviewed Halo last week - and were unimpressed. While I'm loathe to sneer at Halo criticism for fear of being seen as an overbiased fanboi, the reviewer picked some of the silliest things to complain about:

When you move onto each successive chapter of Halo, you'll restart with Marine guns, regardless of what you ended the previous chapter with. Once, after battling my way out of an end of chapter fortress with a needler and a rocket launcher, I nearly had a heart attack when the next chapter, which started right where the last left off, started me off with the crappy pistol and machine gun from the beginning of the game. I didn't play for days after that one, and it happened all too often.

Other complaints included too-low ammo-carrying limits, too-few-gun carrying limits, bad driving controls, and a tired storyline. Overall, they rated it 81%. We've added it to our Reviews database. Thanks to Blue's News for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:33:46 UTC) (permalink)

Halo on the Big Screen
Vector40 went to the MaxGames competition at the San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation - read his insanely long (but quite entertaining) account of the goings-on on our forum. (Louis Wu 10:07:53 UTC) (permalink)

Another Trailer Writeup
Razorback noticed another description of the Halo 2 trailer - this time at IGN. Take a look, before it gets buried behind the IGNinsider wall. Makes you wish 19 days was shorter... (Louis Wu 02:25:11 UTC) (permalink)

HNC Schedules posted
Yeroen, over at Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site, has posted the schedules for all the Regionals matches for the ongoing Halo National Tournament. Swing by if you want to know where to go when. (Louis Wu 02:02:16 UTC) (permalink)

OSX Tunneler updated
For Mac-owning Halo Online players - Aquaduct 1.0b3 has been released. Go grab it. (Thanks to Deimos™ for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 01:57:58 UTC) (permalink)

A 'Cingular' discovery
When Bungie released the Halo 2 screenshots last week, one of them sparked some debate - people wondered about a symbol visible on one of them. Some thought it was the men's room... others thought maybe it signified who won the cellphone wars in the future. Jaime Griesemer, Halo 2's lead designer, suggested that it was present in the first Halo. Aginor finally found it - it's a symbol for 'airlock'. (He made a homemade image showing where he thought it turned up - but i snagged a screenshot, showing it in place. This is this first airlock you come to in the first level.) Nice eyes! (Louis Wu 01:54:07 UTC) (permalink)

More HNC thoughts
d!s-CreTion (enraged on bungie.net, who's gonna be kicking my butt at an HBO Junkies lanfest in a couple of weeks) has written up his Halo National Tournament experiences - he's in the Regionals! Check out the details. (Louis Wu 23:11:48 UTC) (permalink)

More movie mirrors
Another mirror for some of the more popular movies out there - check out Xbox4uweb.de:

These, too, have been added to the relevant mirror pages. Thanks, guys! (Louis Wu 21:54:55 UTC) (permalink)

A new movie host
Thanks to Willy, who pointed out that hump-u.com is hosting a number of Halo vids:

We've added individual links to all the mirror pages. The bandwdith is greatly appreciated! (Louis Wu 16:13:18 UTC) (permalink)

HNC Regionals Rules Change
There's been a settings change in one of the Regionals games for the Halo National Championship - an issue was raised on our forum by PS-DragoNSpeaR that made it clear that the existing rules would be rather unfair. Details can be found at Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site. (If you're playing in the regionals, READ THIS - don't show up Saturday to discover the game you've practiced for is different than you expected...) (Louis Wu 15:04:11 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 'Preview'
In an effort to live up to their name, Games First has put up a 'preview' of Halo 2. There's nothing in there that hasn't been seen elsewhere... but it is the first 'preview' (named as such) we've seen. First mentioned at VoodooExtreme, but we snagged it off Rampancy.net. (Louis Wu 14:51:00 UTC) (permalink)

More HNC Impressions
Jester has written up his experiences at the Halo National Tournament - swing by the Psyjnir Complex for the details. 4 rounds, lots of deaths... (Louis Wu 01:36:22 UTC) (permalink)

The Kudos Keep Coming
We received word that Mad Gamers reviewed Halo - they gave it a 10/10, downgrading it only for framerate drops at high action points. We've added it to our Reviews database. (Louis Wu 01:31:41 UTC) (permalink)

The Babies are Back!
HBO Babies - the Pilot! Check it out. (.wmv format, 1.7 mb.) Okay, okay, it's fan-made... but check it out anyway! (And thanks to MasterOmok for sending it in!) (Louis Wu 21:31:17 UTC) (permalink)

Fog of War, Revisited
On April 12, This Side Up sent in some designs for proposed Halo maps. Today, a new batch has come in - this time, they're textured. We've added them to his Map Designs page. (Louis Wu 20:42:40 UTC) (permalink)

Rotating Warthogs
Warbow has created a nice little set of Halo cursors for Windows users. (These work in 9x, NT 4.0, Win2k and XP - Me's not listed?) Directions are included - the download is tiny (8k), so what are you waiting for? (A static preview, not showing you the animation, can be seen here.) (Louis Wu 17:08:16 UTC) (permalink)

And Then Came FF
This is really yesterday's fan fiction - but life was busy...

More pics for your desktop
A pair of new desktop images for you - Ken Schreiber compares Halo and Halo 2, and Allenthar colors in a cool Bungie wallpaper (in a multitude of sizes). Check 'em out in our Wallpaper section! Update: We've added a third image for the morning - this one from Deimos™, over at Subnova.com... it utilizes an exclusive screenshot and a classic quote; check it out! (Louis Wu 14:52:51 UTC) (permalink)

The Genesis of Halo?
oldmano'theC has created a pretty amazing 'Fan Fiction' - it's a video called HALO Genesis•1, and it shows one vision of how Halo might have been formed. It's fully computer-generated footage - there's nothing from the game itself (except the title, and maybe the planetary layout) - even the music is original. It's available from its home site, or from our mythica.org mirror. It's 18 mb, just under 2 minutes, and in QT5 format. Check it out! Update: Thanks to Tocki, of Halo Orbit - there is now a German mirror of this film. (It doesn't come in Chip's nice little display window... but heck, if you're in Europe, saving the transatlantic bandwidth is easily worth losing that!) (Louis Wu 12:27:31 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 Banner posted
This was noticed a week ago, by Bachus, first... but we've finally added the new Halo 2 banner from the main bungie.com web page to our Banners collection. It shows the MC before an open airlock, an interesting viewpoint not shown in the rest of the currently released media. (Louis Wu 09:04:02 UTC) (permalink)

Details, details...
The Psyjnir Complex's Shallow Throat tells all! (Well, tells SOMETHING.) Halo 2 storyline - revealed? (Louis Wu 08:44:03 UTC) (permalink)

Delay explained?
Smilebit has a theory about the delay of the Halo 2 trailer... (Louis Wu 02:13:35 UTC) (permalink)

Theft sucks.
A few days ago, we posted a desktop image submitted by Chome, of Xbox Weekly. Turns out that pic used (without permission) the artwork of Greg Martin, specifically a picture called 'Inevitable'. At the request of Mr. Martin, we've yanked this entry. (He does some pretty amazing work - you might want to browse through his site.) A warning to content submitters - if we discover you've submitted a piece using artwork that belongs to someone else, we will not accept any future submissions from you - in any category. (Louis Wu 02:09:47 UTC) (permalink)

More HNC viewpoints
We mentioned the Halo National Tournament thoughts of Freewill, and Team Overkill - now there are a bunch more at Bungie's Tru7h and Reconciliation site. Stop by, and see what people were experiencing... (Louis Wu 02:00:56 UTC) (permalink)

Homeless Movies Find Homes
Even when we say no, someone says yes. Kevin Chambers' movie 'The Drunk Master Chief' was turned down here for hosting because it didn't meet our (rather stringent) posting guidelines... but it's already found 2 homes: Haloid is hosting it on the web (last item on the list), and the Psyjnir Complex is hosting it via Hotline (go to Files, then Halo -> Movies). 14 megs, .wmv format... go for it! (We've got a pair of homes lined up for the larger movie mentioned this morning, as well - just ironing out some details.) (Louis Wu 21:19:33 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 Trailer: Coming in September
Ouch! Xbox.com has put up a 'Halo 2 Trailer Countdown' - and it's set at 21 days. Ugh. (Unfortunately, even though the link it goes to is broken, Bungie has confirmed that the date is correct.) Think of the interim as a reflective period... (Matt Gray gets the nod for the first heads-up.) (Louis Wu 20:37:13 UTC) (permalink)

Movie? Sort of.
Vinny Mac has submitted 'Marines', a pretty cool Flash file - it's just over a meg, and it's really nicely done. You can call it a music video, I guess... low-tech, but some laugh-out-loud moments. Check it out! (Louis Wu 16:48:19 UTC) (permalink)

Movie Bandwidth needs...
It's happening again. :( Recently we had two movies submitted to us (different submitters) containing interesting gameplay clips put to music. They're very different - one focuses on a Master Chief who can't drive, is in .wmv format, is almost 9 minutes long, and weighs in at 14 megs, the other focuses on what happens when plasma grenades and warthogs get together, is in .mpeg format, is almost 5 minutes long, and weighs in at almost 50 megs - but they have the same problem - they need a home, and neither one meets our Movie Posting Guidelines. The Halo 2 trailer is on the horizon, some other very promising pieces are coming soon, and some of our biggest bandwidth donors are facing troubles of their own... bandwidth is really, really tight. :( If anyone wants to help out with either of the files mentioned above, let us know - we'll send 'em off to you, and post a link (and our grateful thanks). If anyone has a large, unused bandwidth pipe that they are just aching to fill-drop us a line, we'll set up a movie mirror, and thousands of Halo fans will love you. (Louis Wu 16:42:14 UTC) (permalink)

More Trailer Info
For those of you who just can't wait to actually SEE the Halo 2 trailer, Gamers.com has put up a transcript of it. Thanks to andrew katz for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:34:31 UTC) (permalink)

Tricks queue - down by 3
It's not a flood, just a trickle... but hey, they're getting out. 3 more entries in the Gameplay Tricks section - a glitch, a new Blood Gulch technique, and a demonstration of class. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 00:03:01 UTC) (permalink)

The mini-games keep coming
Lion has created yet ANOTHER Halo mini-game - this time it's a Space Invaders type. You're the MC, shooting Banshees. It's a little funky - all the Banshees got trapped up in the top left corner for me, so just holding down the fire button racked up the points until I got bored... but hey, whaddaya want for free? PC-only, just under 2 megs, zipped. We'll set up a section somewhere soon. (Louis Wu 22:37:15 UTC) (permalink)

Rules still available
Yeroen, over at Bungie.net, points out that even though the Rules page for the Halo National Championship seems to have disappeared from the EBGames website, you can find them online here, courtesy of iGames. (Louis Wu 21:44:25 UTC) (permalink)

Mighty Morphin' Master Chief
Griffon has created a couple of morphing animations to show the difference between the Halo MC and the Halo 2 MC. You can find MPEG versions on his page here (the version with a background is 288K, the version matted on white is 256K), or you can grab local .mov versions (morphinchief.mov is 261K, mmwhite.mov is 296K). Go Go Gadget Assault Rifle! (Louis Wu 13:47:01 UTC) (permalink)

Server status
Not everyone can tell yet... but HBO is back online, after a short outage yesterday, at a new home. Hopefully, DNS will propagate fast enough that by the time the Halo 2 trailer is released, folks can find us. Moral of the story - buy your bandwidth from nice people. (Louis Wu 09:17:15 UTC) (permalink)

Phoenix? No, Rampancy...
Once upon a time, a big star in the Halo fan firmament was The Core, which morphed into Rampancy.net. Time went by, and R.net slipped off the radar screen - dns woes, loss of maintainers to the Bungie developer stable, and maintainer change of focus all contributed. Narcogen has resurrected the site, however, and it now sports a Halo 2 forum, an emerging Halo 2 FAQ, and more. Stop by and say hello! (Louis Wu 20:09:04 UTC) (permalink)

Xbox Gamers to interview Bungie
Apparently, Xbox Gamers has managed to secure an interview with the Halo 2 development team - they're currently asking for questions. If there's anything you must know, head on over! (Thanks to Aginor for the heads-up.) Update: you might want to check Matt's own words on the subject before you send your questions in... (Louis Wu 19:49:28 UTC) (permalink)

Desktop secrets, revealed
I said I'd do it - so I'm doing it. Too much mail about this - too many forum posts. Last Thursday, Halo 2 was announced - and at 6:15 am PDT, Bungie released a set of desktop images. One of them ('The Mark VI') contained some very-hard-to-read text spread around the image. About an hour later, lexicus began to decipher it - the final tidbits were posted an hour after that. The full transcription can be found in THIS post - put up after one-too-many threads on the subject. They're still coming (as is the email), though.. hence this news post. Bottom line: The text is known, please don't send us any more modified images showing it to us. Thanks! (Louis Wu 17:49:26 UTC) (permalink)

Weekend Queue shrinking
Halo 2 secrets revealed... and why you shouldn't worry. All in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 17:33:20 UTC) (permalink)

Mahdrigalo
And the Fan Music collection grows... SilverBrin has submitted a new piece for your listening pleasure. He writes:

I just uploaded a file called "Mahdrigalo.mp3". It's a piece I wrote the day I heard Halo 2 was announced.Ê It is also in honor of Marty O'Donnell's timeless music.Ê It is exciting to think he is now working on new stuff for the new game!

Anyway, I twist around the Halo and The Siege of Madrigal themes into my own interpretation and then combine them at the end.Ê It is entirely Midi and does not use any audio from Marty's music.Ê Everything was rendered using cheap midi software (hence the poor quality). I still think the dramatic interpretation may entertain...but you guys can be the judges.Ê

Just as Halo wallpaper starts with Bungie-created artwork and presents the submitter's vision, this piece starts with Marty's Halo theme and 'Siege of Madrigal' piece, and presents SilverBrin's vision. We've upped it to Mythica.org - it's 5.3 mb. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 17:24:18 UTC) (permalink)

Shallow Throat?
The Psyjnir Complex claims to have a source on the inside - the inside of WHAT, we don't know - with some information about the future of the Halo franchise. Or maybe it's the local McDonald's franchise. I can never tell. Check 'em out anyway. (Louis Wu 16:59:44 UTC) (permalink)

Internet Woes
Sometimes, you just can't catch a break. Last month, HBO moved to new digs - bigger pipe, better server, yadda, yadda, yadda. This morning, I received a phone call - the owner of the colocation company that HOSTED that new server had skipped town, and the datacenter was threatening to cut power for non-payment of bills. The sad part is, I'd done my homework - these guys came relatively highly recommended. :( Someone has stepped in to clean up the mess - so HBO won't be going down permanently... but there WILL be a day's outage this weekend (timing unknown at this point) to move servers to another facility nearby. Our forum runs on a different machine (and a different pipe), and isn't going anywhere, so if, by some weird fluke, something happens to keep the site down for longer than we thought, information will be provided there. Apologies for the inconvenience. (Louis Wu 15:36:46 UTC) (permalink)

Gaming with your kids
Got a kid? Do you play Halo with them? Jon Sager does - and gets beat by his 6-year-old daughter. When you're done laughing, go read his column over at Gamespotting, for some pretty interesting observations about parenting and gaming (and how they relate). Thanks to Team Overkill for the link. (Louis Wu 02:09:17 UTC) (permalink)

The Competitive Systems Arena
Skavenger_s7 found a pretty interesting little device which will take the four panels of a split screen and send 'em out in different directions - no more cheating by looking at your buddy's screen in multiplayer! Mirrors and cardboard can bring fair competition back to your lan gatherings... (Louis Wu 02:04:06 UTC) (permalink)

New Press material from Xbox.com
Strato99| noticed some new Halo 2 material over at the Xbox.com press site - a couple of isolated shots of MC (that is, separated from any background), a nice version of the Halo 2 logo, and the four main screens with no watermarks on them. These aren't really hi-res or anything... but if you're building Halo 2 stuff for the web, they just might come in handy. (Louis Wu 01:59:38 UTC) (permalink)

More desk coverings
Take a day off, come back to a flood of submissions. We'll start with desktops - there are 5 new ones:

h2_wait.jpg, by Justin

halo2wal102.jpg, by Chome (3 flavors)

hippopaper.jpg, by Justin

MC.is.back.jpg, by Chromejr45

One.More.Time.jpg, by Dusty Patt

Bowling for MCs
The DVD that came with the August issue of the Official Xbox Magazine contained a short movie called 'Pyramid of Destruction'. Team Overkill converted it to a web-friendly format last month, but we couldn't bring it to you until the issue was off the shelves. It went off the shelves this week... so here it is, thanks to the hosting of Mythica.org. It's one minute long, 3.5 mb large, in QT5 format. Enjoy! (Count Zero 03:29:04 UTC) (permalink)

A more serious Halo 'mini-game'
Unhappy with the quality of the previously released Halo mini-games, tino built something a bit more extensive. Multiple levels, and (apparently) a multiplayer mode, too! I only tested the first couple of levels... but it's pretty fun; brings back memories of the early days of gaming. :) It's Windows-only, and almost 9 mb, zipped - we've uploaded it to mythica.org. Watch out - Banshees can fly through walls! (Thanks to Deimos™, of Subnova, for virus-testing this for us. It's clean.) (Louis Wu 16:34:51 UTC) (permalink)

Reminisance now in QT format
Recently, Dan Chosich released 'Reminisance', a dream-sequence film with some very interesting editing. It originally came in just a Windows Media format - but there are now a pair of QuickTime versions available. Dan himself created a 94 mb version, and Brian Josselyn made a 60 mb version. Links to both can be found on the Reminisance mirrors list. (Louis Wu 11:43:19 UTC) (permalink)

Eye candy
Whoa. Inbox is FULL of Halo 2 Wallpaper today... Check out these 8 new submissions!

badday.jpg, by Vinny Mac

H2.The.battle.Begins.jpg, by Knight Premier

halo2.jpg, by Kaworu Nagisa

halo2targetwall.jpg, by Apostle

Halo2Wallpaper.jpg, by Alex 'Whistler' Samouridis

halo2_desktop.jpg, by author

hope.jpg, by Dusty Patt

Improvement1024.jpg, by Allenthar

4 is better than 0
There just never seems to be time to process the Gameplay Tricks queue - I've decided to put them up a few at a time, which has to be preferable to waiting until I can process a dozen or so at a stretch. There are only 4 for you right now - but that's 4 more than you had before. They range from a fun demo of vehicle clipping to a pretty slick Loading Point avoidance... with some cool stuff in between. Visit the Gameplay Tricks section! (Louis Wu 20:39:44 UTC) (permalink)

Newest movie mirror: pez.bungie.org
Pez Mohr has put up a web interface for his Halo Movie mirror site - and we've put an easier name to remember on it. Check it out! (The web part is pretty slow... but the ftp downloads are quite fast. In addition, he's provided news/movie links from here, to help you decide what version you want to download.) (Louis Wu 15:36:48 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 Wallpaper
Alex Cross submits our first Halo 2 Wallpaper. You'll find it in the Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 15:31:30 UTC) (permalink)

In addition, we received this note - take it as you will. (It's not fan fiction... but it pertains to it.) (Louis Wu 15:03:34 UTC) (permalink)

Chaos, Revisited
Last night, we announced Chaos on the Ring II, a new movie from ZiDigi Online. Response has been positive... except for some material at the beginning and end of the movie. In response to critics, the team has released a second version - it's identical to the first, except it's missing the first 30 seconds, and the last minute. Formats are identical (720x480 and 360x240, QT5), and the new versions weigh in at 39 and 20 mb, respectively. You can find BOTH versions listed on their downloads page - if you don't mind fluff, get the first version, if you'd rather have a more focused film, get V2. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 21:56:00 UTC) (permalink)

HBO's Legendary Walkthrough - The Library
Asmodeus has turned in the next chapter of his Legendary Walkthrough - The Library, one of the longest levels on Legendary, has now been pinned down. Having trouble with those waves of enemies? Come on by, and snag a few key techniques! (Louis Wu 21:24:07 UTC) (permalink)

More Halo 2 Press
Another Halo 2 Press Release - this one specifically about Halo 2 (instead of Halo 2 and Project Gotham 2 combined). You can find it at Team Xbox, among other places... more drool material:

"'Halo 2' is a lot like 'Halo', only it's 'Halo' on fire, going 130 miles per hour through a hospital zone, being chased by helicopters and ninjas," explained Jason Jones, the head of Bungie Studios, "and the ninjas are all on fire, too."

That man has a way with words... (thanks to TomeOne for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 18:59:29 UTC) (permalink)

Trailer description at GameSpot
For those who can't wait for the Halo 2 Trailer, GameSpot has put up a synopsis of what you'll see. You also get a taste of the Halo 2 story - here's a snippet of it:

As the Master Chief enters the hangar, it is revealed that his spacecraft is orbiting Earth--and that Earth is under heavy fire from Covenant warships. The Covenant are the enemy race from the original Halo game, and it seems that they have found the human homeworld and are seeking to destroy it outright. Therefore, the Master Chief's new mission is clear: defend Earth and save humankind.

Stories to tide you over
If you've stopped drooling over those Halo 2 shots, come back to some Fan Fiction:

Get to readin'! There ain't gonna be any playable Halo 2 demos for quite some time... (Louis Wu 16:43:45 UTC) (permalink)

Tentative release date?
The word from Microsoft on Halo 2 (Note: that said Microsoft, not Bungie) is that the game "is expected to arrive on store shelves for the 2003 holiday season," according to this press release. PC Halo in the summer, Xbox Halo 2 in the winter... gonna be a good year next year! (Louis Wu 14:02:46 UTC) (permalink)

News of the Month
You knew it was coming, right? Halo 2 has been announced. Swing by Bungie.net, and read all about it... new screens, new desktops... and a new movie, coming soon. This is gonna Rock Your World. (Louis Wu 13:16:47 UTC) (permalink)

The Chaos has Landed
Back in February, Eric Giese and Russell Ziegler, of ZiDigi Online, put out Chaos on the Ring, a nicely-made vid showing some cool stunts. 6 months later, we've got Chaos on the Ring II - and it's lots of fun. You gotta love the image of four Hogs, flying overhead like some sort of wingless Blue Angels... It's available in 2 sizes, a 42 mb, 720x480 version and a 22 mb, 360x240 version, both QuickTime 5. They're doing their best to keep all connections running through their Chaos II page, so as to keep an accurate count of downloads - so if you'd like to add this file to a mirror site, they'd like to list it. Details (and current download locations) can be found on the Chaos II page. (There are also copies of both sizes on the Psyjnir.com Hotline server... just go to Halo -> Movies.) Go get it! (Louis Wu 00:16:11 UTC) (permalink)

Logos, Updated art
Eep - these came in a couple of days ago, but they were attached to a message about something else, and I missed them. StarWarsFanMan has sent in a pair of enhanced Halo logos - you'll find 'em in our Logos section. (He also sent in a 'clearer' version of the Forerunner Concept sketch he submitted last week.) (Louis Wu 16:42:55 UTC) (permalink)

Another Halo Mini-Game
A little while ago, we posted a small Halo game created by a fan - now we've got another one for you. This one was created by Drew and Taylor (Lion on our forums), and the object is to simply shoot (click on) the grunts and elites floating around the screen. Grunts are 2 points, Elites are 5. Hit a Master Chief, though, you lose 5. PC-only, and 733k zipped. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 15:44:13 UTC) (permalink)

CUR reviews Halo
We received word that Clan Underworld Revolution has reviewed Halo. The review itself is ambiguous (there's a lot wrong, in the reviewer's eyes, it seems), but the summary suggests differently. (They gave it a 9.5/10, and called it 'the best console game I have ever played'.) We've added it to our Reviews database. (Louis Wu 15:04:23 UTC) (permalink)

'New' viewpoint at xbox.com
Not clear when this was posted - it was after June 22, which is the date of the LAST xbox.com roundup we did, but it's not listed in their news archives at all - but xbox.com has put up an article entitled 'Halo: Reality Held in Suspense', discussing the way Halo draws you in. It does, you know. (Louis Wu 14:30:13 UTC) (permalink)

Airfare for nuthin'
Yesterday, we mentioned the Halo50K tournament... well, one of the barriers to entry has just been reduced for some lucky team. The website has news of a new contest - create a promotional vid for the competition, and win free plane tickets for your team. Thanks to dolbex for the heads-up! Major Correction: Seems I misunderstood - they weren't talking about free airfare... they were talking about free ADMISSION TICKETS. That's the $100pp charge to get in - so make a cool vid, save $400. My bad... but still a damn good deal! (Louis Wu 13:42:29 UTC) (permalink)

New Music Vid Available
HNN Productions has put up their second film - this one's called 'Halo-Pay Back' and is a 5.1 mb, 3 minute long .wmv file. It's a music vid - Halo campaign gameplay set to P.O.D.'s 'Boom'... but the timing's quite good. (Using Sarge as the lead vocal's pretty nice, too.) (Louis Wu 19:56:55 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 rumblings
GamerWeb Xbox claims to have 'inside information' that Halo 2 will be announced later this week, in New York. (Why New York? It's not the home of Microsoft, or Bungie, or much of anything else related to Halo - well, okay, it's the home of Freewill, Bungie's number 1 fan - hmm...) Thanks to PCDestroyer for the heads-up - but please, take it with a grain of salt. It ain't so till Bungie SAYS it's so. (Louis Wu 16:30:17 UTC) (permalink)

OXM UK articles scanned
Thanks to Griffon, who last month sent in scans from the July 2002 issue of the Official UK Xbox Magazine. There is a 10-page spread on Halo (lots of good info, and an interview with Jaime Griesemer, Halo 2's Lead Designer), and a short teaser on Halo 2. Check 'em out in our Press Scans section! (Louis Wu 14:57:49 UTC) (permalink)

Halo50K Opens its Doors
What is easily the most ambitious fan-run Halo Tournament to date kicks off its registration today. Halo50K.com (so named because they're shooting to award a top prize of $50,000 - yes, you read that right) is now live. Prizes will actually be based on the number of entering teams - but they'd really like to see 1000 people (250 teams of 4 people each) fighting for $50k and some cool schwag. This is NOT a scam - it's being set up by some long-time Halo community members, who just want to get as many people as possible playing Halo for cash as they can. Admission isn't cheap - it's $100/person, or $400/team - but that's where the cash to fund the prizes is coming from. If you and your team can make it to Atlanta, Georgia on November 9, then hurry over to Halo50K.com and join the fun! (Louis Wu 12:04:38 UTC) (permalink)

Movie News
Okay, we've had some mirror additions, and a new site coming online... That Weasel Television has added mirrors for the following movies:

We've also added Dan Chosich's Reminisance to the Mythica.org repository (which has served out over 250 GIGS of movies in the past 4 days...). Lastly, Shadow writes that he's put up a movie mirror site: Halo: Gundam. He states that it's a bare-bones listing (I might argue with that - it's a pretty attractive design, even if it WAS designed for something else), and that it has some potential problems (it's slow, it might get yanked)... but it's a nice last resort, if nothing else is working for you. (We're grateful for every byte!) (Louis Wu 00:50:59 UTC) (permalink)

Registration ends soon...
Bungie.net is reporting that online preregistration for the Halo National Tournament ends tomorrow... you MIGHT still be able to register on the day of the event, but you certainly shouldn't count on it. (Louis Wu 21:36:48 UTC) (permalink)

MC on the Barbie
If you ever find yourself Down Under, and you need something to do... look up Crocodile Bungie. They're the Seventh Column Aussie contingent... and they've recently put together a pretty slick little video (2:29 long) showing what you'd be up against if you visited. There's a high-quality version - 17.8 mb, 300x240, QT5, and a lower-quality version - 7.7 mb, 240x180. Looks like they don't like campers, among other things! (Louis Wu 04:57:22 UTC) (permalink)

There oughtta be a law...
Bungie's Number One Fan Miguel 'Freewill' Chavez competed in the first round of the Halo National Tournament... and has written up his experiences, complete with pics. Check it out at Bungie Sightings! Correction: Miguel competed in a warm-up event, not the actual tournament. Silly me - the tournament doesn't even start until next week! (Louis Wu 04:37:26 UTC) (permalink)

You gotta hear this...
Apologies for the lack up updates - I spent the day at a music festival with my family. Too much sun, too much driving, lots of great music... and what do I come back to? MORE great music! dogsounds (recently in the news for his cartooning skills) has dropped off our first Fan Music submission... and I'm pretty impressed! dogsounds says:

I had a few hours spare this weekend so I cobbled together some 'fan music' I guess you could call it, inspired by the SACRED GAME and Uncle Marty's classic musical outpourings.

It was a bit rushed to be honest, so it's not brilliant or anything, and I was having some troubles with my sampler (noting a swift twat about the front panel can't fix, probably), but I hope everyone enjoys it. Maybe others will be inspired to write their own Halo fan music!

I based it on the scene in 'The Fall Of Reach' where Sam realizes that, because of damage to his armor, he can't leave the doomed Covenant ship that is on a countdown to destruction, and so must stay behind and accept his fate.

It's called 'Costly Exfiltration (Sam Says Goodbye)', but I've renamed the mp3 to be more internet friendly. Grab sam.says.goodbye.mp3 (3.5 mb) today, and be sure to post what you think! (Louis Wu 04:18:29 UTC) (permalink)

Pictures say stuff
Art for the day: bikeman704 has cobbled together a 'screenshot' of a wished-for Half-Life mod... minor spoilers here. You'll find this in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 14:27:29 UTC) (permalink)

Find that Flick
The Movies Database has finally been brought up-to-date... movies from the past 2 weeks or so have been added. Hopefully, we'll have more mirrors for some of the bigger ones soon... (Louis Wu 11:41:14 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Theme doings
The Halo theme package released yesterday has found a pair of new hosts - there's a copy at Psyjnir.com's Hotline server (Halo ->Desktops/Wallpaper), and a copy at Pez Mohr's ftp server. In addition, Pez has re-zipped the collection, so that the file structure is better after unzipping. (We'll replace the original version with his as soon as possible - it's currently being downloaded by too many people to simply yank. :) ) (Louis Wu 01:58:39 UTC) (permalink)

Invisible to Hunters
Continuing with the theme of camo-colored vehicles, Blackstar has retextured the Scorpion to work better in a snow environment... check out his Winter Camo Tank in the Miscellaneous Art section. (Louis Wu 01:49:30 UTC) (permalink)

Massive Halo Theme for Windows package
St. Joan, an old-time Bungie fan, has submitted a pretty comprehensive Halo theme for Windows-based machines. It's rather large (9 megs), because it contains 5 separate themes, each with "multiple resolution wallpaper, original icons, cursors, and MP3 layer sound files." The quality is quite high - so if you're in the market for a Halo theme, and you're running Windows, give it a whirl. (It was submitted as a self-extracting zip file that actually required some rearranging once I got it installed... so I've re-zipped it so as to include the (separate) readme. There's a full readme IN the package... but getting to the package might be tricky; better to have the text in front of you. The downside - you'll need to unzip it twice. :( ) We've hosted it here, at HBO - but if anyone wanted to mirror this, just let us know! (Louis Wu 19:17:27 UTC) (permalink)

Little bit o' reading
Lazy days of summer - today's Fan Fiction offering is again one story - Titan - Chapter 2, by Jaywhit10. Give it a shot! (Louis Wu 18:27:51 UTC) (permalink)

Bandwidth relief
Thanks to Pez Mohr, who's added another mirror for the 120 mb version of the Matrix movie. All current mirrors can be found on the Matrix Mirrors page... and we'll be adding this movie (and Dan Chosich's Reminisance) to the Movie Database soon. (Louis Wu 14:34:59 UTC) (permalink)

Lookit Them Teeth, Otis!
New material at Bungie.net... the big one is the Halo Tournament Strategy Guide, written by Yeroen. Lots of goodness here. However, don't overlook the ubercool desktop (scroll to the very bottom) showing the Legendary Skull you get when you complete a level on Legendary difficulty - in hi-res goodness. (Louis Wu 04:08:42 UTC) (permalink)

Covert Covenant
dogsounds sent in another Halo funny - we've added it to our Miscellaneous Art section. To put it simply - this guy rocks. (Go visit the website, for more comic goodness... non-Halo-related, but good stuff.) (Louis Wu 03:47:01 UTC) (permalink)

Movie Mirrors Begin
The Matrix movie went live this morning without the usual Psyjnir.com hotline link - apparently, Psyrixx is out of town. It wasn't clear exactly where... but I think the Psyjnir Webmaster's Mom is involved (and there was something about email porn links... it's all rather fuzzy). Anyway, the Webmaster was kind enough to give me permission to put several files up at the Psyjnir Hotline server; If you navigate to Halo -> Movies, you'll find all three resolutions of the Matrix movie, and Dan Chosich's 'Reminisance' (an 86 mb WMV file). Hot dang! (We're still happily accepting mirror offers for any of these files.) (Louis Wu 21:30:52 UTC) (permalink)

Stop the Presses!
Whoa. Not too often that Marty O'Donnell is proven wrong in print - but eric has pulled it off. A couple of days ago, he stated that his favorite quote from the Halo dialog archives was 'What kind of a**wipe are you?' (a line from one of the underground Engineers on the level Halo). Marty corrected him, stating that they'd never have put a line like that into Halo... but eric persisted. Upon reconsideration, Marty retracted his denial - and Jay Weinland provided an explanation of how the unthinkable could have happened. Bottom line - if you think you're right, you just might be. (Louis Wu 21:07:44 UTC) (permalink)

How big is your hard drive?
In our Movies database, there are over 100 films listed. Almost 70 of them are fan-created... but only a handful of those truly stand out as groundbreakers; BungieLove, Warthog Jump, A**hole, a few others. Well, welcome the next entrant to that elite class: The Matrix (Halo Remix). Bill Paetzke has meticulously recreated the opening scene from the movie 'The Matrix'... and he's done it with s7yle. There are three versions:

a HUGE 120 mb version shows you the action at 720x480 - but at present there are only a pair of mirrors for it. (There will hopefully be a few more showing up today - but as of right now, this is it.)

A midrange, 42 mb version; it's 360x240, but pretty high quality. The only source for this is Bill's server at the moment.

A budget, 20 mb version, also 360x240. This is quite watchable... and at the moment has several mirrors (with more coming). For those not sitting on a very large pipe, this is the recommended version.

All of these (and any new mirrors people want to tell us about) can be found on the Matrix Mirror page. And if that wasn't enough for one day's movie quota... Dan Chosich has announced that his sixth Halo vid, Reminisance, is up for grabs for today only. It's in .WMV format, and it's 86 megs large... and I hope that as soon as the bandwidth crunch caused by The Matrix dies down, we can put a copy up at mythica.org (because it's a masterpiece of editing). Feast or famine, folks! (Louis Wu 17:07:01 UTC) (permalink)

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August 2002 Archived News